jan 1, 1550 - black leather

Description:

A term found from the late fourteenth century: 1398 <i>to make stirrup lethyrs of blak barked lethir,</i> York (SS120/92). Leather was apparently blackened in the past by using water or vinegar mixed with either copperas or iron filings, a sort of black ink. It was a process that had to be checked by the searchers in the York shoemakers’ guild: 1417 <i>si invenerint aliquod corium nigrum (sive sit integra pellis vel dorsum) non tannatum,</i> York (SS120/189). In 1491 the <i>serssors of the cordweners</i> agreed to pay 13s 4d annually <i>to have ther old ordynaunces agayn delivered with serche of blake and rede lether,</i> York (YRS103/74) and in 1550-1 they had indentures drawn up with the Lord Mayor and his officers <i>towchyng the grant of serche of blak leader onely and correction of all defalts in their craft </i>(YRS110/50).

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